Her Mutant
by KHB123
Summary: Finally coming to terms with his unrequited feelings, it was because he loved her that Donnie was finally prepared to do the last thing he ever wanted to do: let April go. The results of his surrender, however, couldn't have taken a more shocking and unexpected turn.


**Taking a break from Naruto and Middle-earth, this is my first TMNT** **fanfic. I wrote this while visiting New York during the Christmas holidays, so it was the perfect time to shake it off. This is the 2012 version, taking place in S.3, E.2: "A Foot Too Big."** **I realize that there are probably many versions already written about this specific scene, so this is my take.**

 **This may contain spoilers.**

 **ION: I Own Nothing.**

* * *

 **Her Mutant**

 ** _Chomp!_**

The sound of chopping wood can be heard across the grassy field of the O'Neil Farm. Standing out in front of the house, April put all the physical force she had into the small axe she held, using both hands to split a chunk of wood at a time with one powerful swing. Replacing another on the tree stump, she wiped the sweaty bangs out of her eyes before resuming her chore with a determined grunt of effort.

Silent and unmoving, Donnie watched her for a while longer, as he had done for the past thirty minutes.

Thirty minutes of letting himself be entranced by the mere sight of her: by the ivory glow of her freckled skin under the morning sunlight, the bright flare of her strawberry-red hair dampening near the loose strands escaping her yellow-banded ponytail, and the determined spark in her crystal blue eyes as she put all her strength in swinging that axe, despite her petite form. And yet just beneath that stubbornly independent focus remained the gentle and kind-hearted girl who lost her father (twice), lost a lifelong friend who was never real, lost her adopted father and sensei, continued to struggle with her half-alien identity as well as her developing powers, and still tried to be strong for her new turtle family as well as herself in their time of healing.

Not to mention trying to (or trying _not_ to) deal with the love triangle she was currently stuck in against her will. As much as Donnie wanted to blame Casey for the rivalry over April's affections, he knew now that he himself was just as much to blame, if not _more_.

For all she had been through, for all she had trained for, April (however reluctantly) took on the many challenges barging into her life (both in the old and the new), no matter how many times she stumbled along the way. Though sometimes shy as well as hot-headed, she was altogether a strong-willed young woman. A hard-worker and a blooming warrior in a yellow T-shirt layered over long black sleeves, jean shorts over black tights, and black combat boots, all of which shaped her physique with smart and ideal perfection in his eyes. All of which that made her be April O'Neil.

She was so beautiful. His princess…his angel...

 _Focus, Donnie! Remember why we're here!_

Twiddling his fingers, he slowly approached her.

He knew he had to do this. He _had_ to.

After Bigfoot departed with "The Finger," he had been up all night in the forest alone, thinking over and over about how he should go through with this. He had told Mikey to go back to the farmhouse without him, and surprisingly his baby brother had gone without much of a fuss. The orange-banded turtle had been much too eager to dash back and start replaying to everyone else the crazy events of the two of them confronting a loony hunter who called himself The Finger, his "mother" the shrunken head, and Bigfoot's new infatuation toward her attempted, and now remorseful, captor/killer.

Meanwhile, Donnie kept on recalling April's unspoken rejection the other day, followed by all of the other times she dodged around the topic whenever he tried expressing his feelings more forwardly. He was then invaded by other equally unpleasant thoughts that tore through his mind: her close relationship with Casey, how obvious she expressed it by embracing the vigilante in front of him more than once after narrowly surviving near-death experiences, followed by Leo's subtle disapproval in the form of stern nagging about focusing on training and better teamwork (which Donnie, in his own defense, found hypocritical whenever Karai became involved), and Raph's _not-so-subtle_ skepticism in the form of constant verbal jabbing, hitting him mercilessly with endless warnings that Don refused to listen to.

 _'Isn't she the only girl you have ever seen?'_

 _'Hang on! You still think you have a chance with her?'_

 _'The love thing between you two…it's never gonna happen, Don! She's a human girl, and you're just a giant, talking mutant turtle.'_

 _'Now you know how April feels!'_

That most recent remark had been the one that finally hit home for Donatello. The one that made him face the bitter truth: April didn't like him like that…and never will.

The red-haired girl paused again, leaning on one hip with her hands perched on the axe's handle. Her face tilted back, she closed her eyes to bask in the sun's morning rays, sighing peacefully. Donnie swallowed hard, pausing twenty feet away, not taking his eyes off of her, not willing to spoil her moment of peace, _his_ moment of peace, before time would resume again.

It hurt. God, it _killed_ him, scraping out his bodily insides like with a surgical scalpel along with the remains of his already shattered heart. A heart which only mended and held itself together for so long with a spark of hope and sheer determination, always fueled with unconditional love...but Raph was right.

It was unfair to April for him to continue pestering her just because she didn't return his feelings. Their time with Bigfoot made him finally experience being the victim of a one-sided crush, and it shattered his heart to realize what he was doing to April, that what he wanted from her could never happen.

He wanted her to be happy. He truly did. Even if...even if it was with _Jones_...he wanted her happiness, even at the cost of his own. He would have given her the world if he could.

Other than his father and brothers, of course, she was the first person that he had truly imprinted on. Not with his brain, but with his heart. Not for any logical or scientific reason, but for purely, stupidly, insanely, painful, wonderful, _romantic_ love.

Before he met the red-headed teenage girl named April O'Neil, he had never thought of himself as a romantic. Shell, he never even cared whether or not he would ever make any friends, contrary to Michelangelo, his polar opposite who wanted nothing more than to make new friends (still did). It was one of the things Don had in common with Raph once upon a time.

He would have been satisfied with only his father and brothers, spending his life building machines and learning new things, if granted the resources and material he craved scavenging. He barely could even express a personal relationship with his brothers, which gradually grew worse when he reached his teen years. He would spend most of his time secluded in his lab, fixing gadgets and coming up with cool new inventions…however hard his brothers ( _ahem, Mikey_ ) made it irritably difficult for him to concentrate uninterrupted.

Although like his brothers, before turning fifteen, he had dreamed for so long of going up to the surface, to explore the vast, unknown world of humanity and continue satisfying his endless hypothetical curiosities.

His true love in life had always been for science and engineering, nothing else...

Until the moment he first laid eyes on her.

Lightning had struck him stupid, making his heart swell and beat so fiercely it seemed to make a dent out of his plastron, causing him to drool as he stared down in divine wonder on the edge of a building's rooftop.

In his haze of pinkish-white light, he saw an angel. Even though he was the one higher in the sky than she.

She was the first person, the first thing, he had chose to love (obsessively so) that was illogical and nonscientific. And no matter how much his brothers expressed their objected opinions, through all their teasing to the point of when trying to discourage him from his "creepy infatuation," as they all began to label it, Donnie refused to give up. He refused to let his brothers (especially Raph) crush his one light of hope, his one ray of happiness, that made him feel more alive than ever before...and he absolutely _refused_ to let some punk, hockey-masked teen with a reckless ego the size of Manhattan steal it away from him just because he had more right to her than Donnie ever would, simply for being _human_...

...but this time the purple-banded turtle knew he had brought this upon himself. It had been in front of him the whole time, but now there was no dodging around the hurtful truth.

April didn't love him. She _couldn't_ love him. It was a biological fact as well as one of preference: she was human and he was a turtle. Being thirty or forty percent human wasn't enough to make a difference: in the end, he would always be a freak to this world, and April deserved someone whole, handsome, and normal.

One thing was for sure, however, no matter what the others say or believe, Donatello _knew_ how he felt about her.

He loved her. Always have and always will.

He loved her so much that he would do anything for her, even give his life. So much...that he was willing to accept a platonic friendship with her, if she still wanted it.

It would torture him, surrendering to a one-sided love for the rest of his life…but it would be far better than her hating him or not having her around him just because he scared her off with his obsession (he would rather not repeat their temporary fallout after accidentally getting her father mutated, for that had truly been hell on earth for him).

To keep her around, he had to let her go.

 ** _CHOMP!_**

Ten yards became one. April still hadn't heard him approach as she gave another swing of her axe. Donatello winced at how easily she split the log cleanly in two, as she had done to his tender heart many times before (though perhaps not intentionally).

Heart in his throat, he managed to announce himself. "Hey, April." His voice sounded weaker than he intended.

Turning around, April smiled at him, before wiping an arm across her damp forehead. "What's up, Donnie?"

Watching her tuck a loose strand of hair behind her ear with fierce longing, Donnie opened and closed his mouth. "I, um, well..." he stammered, not able to meet her beautiful azure eyes anymore without losing his resolve. _Just do it,_ he told himself, trying to shove back his sorrow. "I-I just want to let you know I won't be bothering you with music boxes anymore."

He smirked to himself. "I get it now," he said softly, his voice cracking slightly with fake humor that probably didn't match his eyes, "Donnie is to April as Bigfoot was to Donnie." He shrugged while finally glancing up at her.

April was staring at him with open surprise, her smile long gone. Her eyes were now wide with realization, soon glistening with sympathy.

Unable to stand such a look any longer, Donnie dropped his eyes again, his forced smile twisting into a pained grimace that he could no longer control. "I'm just...a mutant," he mumbled. Doing his absolute best not to cry, he knew he must look even more pitiful to April and felt shame add to his misery. He didn't blame her for the pity, though. He pitied _himself_. For ever even thinking he had a chance with someone like her...

"You're not just a mutant, Donnie," he heard April finally speak, her voice surprisingly sounding more positive.

When he looked up, she had stepped closer to him, her small human hands taking hold of both his shoulders with a slight pull. His heart pounded when her freckled face came within inches of his own. He could feel her small, hourglass form lean slightly against his plastron as she went on her tiptoes, looking him right in the eye with a gentle, coy smile reflecting her shimmering aqua gaze. He forgot to breathe...

"You're _my_ mutant," April finished gently.

Then she kissed him...on the _lips._

 _PFFFT!_ There went his mind and back sprung the beat of his heart, focused on nothing but the silky warmth of her soft lips pressed against his own. Heavy sparks seemed to shoot down his body, sending electrical tingles through his arms, legs, and the hardened arousal within his shell...

And then it was over. Spinning around on her heels, April shot him a genuinely cheerful smile over her shoulder before casually walking back into the house, the axe lying forgotten against the log stump and pile of chopped wood.

 _Huh? I…_

 _She…_

 _We…._

 _WHAT?!_

Donnie was frozen in the spot, trembling with complete wide-eyed shock. His mutant hands were raised at midlevel, as if they could still feel the red-haired teen slip away from their fingers, deprived of the chance to take hold of her as they kissed.

 _We kissed…._

 _WE KISSED?!_

His trembling hands slowly raised until a finger brushed where the ghost of April's sweet lips still lingered on his own. She tasted…like cinnamon and peppermint tea...and he may have briefly tasted a hint of strawberry, like what all those cheesy romance novels would always describe a kiss of passion.

He half-wondered if it had been an illusion, that if he moved he would wake up from this beautiful, yet oh-so-confusing dream.

It was…wonderful. It was confusing.

Unsettling. Perfect.

Surreal.

Their first real kiss.

 _You're_ my _mutant._

But what did it mean? _What did it mean?_

Dropping his arms in reluctant defeat, still staring ahead in a shocked, confused, sad-yet-blissfully-happy daze, no longer making any sense of the world and all of its logical wonders, Donnie mumbled, "…I understand…nothing…"

.

Closing the door behind her, April paused. Staring ahead, the smile on her face slowly faded into disbelief, the reality of her actions from seconds ago gradually beginning to dawn on her.

Dazed and perplexed, as if the world slowed in motion, she leaned against the door, eyes unseeing towards the floor, deep in bewildered thought.

As if in a trance, her hand slowly raised until the tips of her fingers gently brushed her lips, where that spark still lingered. Her freckled cheeks were blooming pink. Eyes flickering, she could still feel Donnie standing outside on the same spot from behind the door, ten feet away from the front porch, his own baffled emotions nearly radiating with her own.

Filled with a torrent of mixed emotions that reflected in her distant gaze, mainly planted by a seed of giddy anxiety fluttering in her stomach, a tiny breathless smile graced her lips.

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 **Annnnd end scene! One of the best Apritello canon scenes scenes:D I kind of wish that the episode had lasted a few seconds longer so that it would've ended with April in deep thought about the kiss, giving us a few positive ideas of what she could be thinking.**

 **I would really love to hear your opinions about this paring scene through your reviews:)**

 **Give a shout out for APRITELLO! WHOOOOOO!**


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